Business functions and its environment

The study analyzes the business size, scope and structures in the private, public and voluntary sectors and the interlink between the business functions and the structure of the business. It also focuses on evaluating the macro environmental factors and conducting internal analysis of the company.

Business functions and its environment
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Table of content
Introduction.....................................................................................................................................3
LO 1 Explaining different types, size and scope of the organisations............................................3
P1 Explaining types and purpose of organization with legal structure......................................3
P2 Explianing size and scope of range of differentb types of organization...............................4
LO 2 Interrelationship of various functions with the organisational structure................................6
P3 Explaining relationship between different organizational functions.....................................6
LO 3 Analysing the impacts of macro environment on business....................................................9
P4 Positive and negative impact of the macro environmenty by using PESTLE model............9
LO 4 Determining the internal strengths and weaknesses of the business....................................12
P5 Conducting internal analysis of company by using SWOT analysis..................................12
P6 strength and weakness are linked with macro environment................................................14
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCE LIST.......................................................................................................................16
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Introduction
The organisational structure and functions play a crucial role to run the operational
activities of the firms and it is the responsibility of the leader and the managers to develop
appropriate organisational structure and create effective strategic planning to run their business
in a systematic process (Leeand Ha-Brookshire, 2017). The aim of the study is to analyse the
business size, scope and structures in the private, public and voluntary sectors and analyse the
activities of the firms in doing their business strategically. Interlink between the business
functions and the structure of the business is also discussed in the organisational context which
provides a scope to analyse the activities of the business firms in doing their business
internationally. Moreover, the study also focuses on evaluating the macro environmental factors
as well as micro factors in the business which has critical impacts on the activities of the
businesses. Through the PESTLE analysis, it is possible to conduct the macro environmental
analysis on a particular firm and SWOT analysis is effective to analyse the internal factors of the
business which are important to run the business successfully.
LO 1 Explaining different types, size and scope of the organisations
P1 Explaining types and purpose of organization with legal structure.
There are different types of organization such as private, public and voluntary sector
orgnization. These organization have their purpose and legal structure for work properly in
effective manner. Those explanation are as follows:
Private company:
Private organization is the organization which is individually operates and run the
business. That have main purpose to run business are earn profit in higher level by providing
best quality of services. The private organization is mainlt managed by shareholders such as
owners, individual person or any other person who had the capability to run business in effective
manner (Ji-fan Ren and et. al., 2017). The main purpose of private organization to earn profits
and enhance investors interest by presentating the more stable finanical statements in order ro
fulfill the needs of public in correct manner. For example: Lidi is private supermarket company.
The legal structure of company is to follow flat organizational structure in that their are various
level of management and also the communication decision making power is raised.
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Public company:
Public organization is refers to such organiztaion whcih they equaliy managed company
with proper intergration. That are managed and run by government. The main purpose of public
company is not to eran profits as that of private company as well as maximise shareholders
values by providing the more quality services and also fulfilling tehir needs. For example:
British council is public coampny. The legal structure of company is to consist with borad of
directors and seniors liable to take better decisions. Considering the legal structure British
Council is governed by a Royal Charter and it is also public corporation and an executive Non-
departmental Public Body (NDPB), sponsored by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Through the above mentioned values, the organisation is efficient to serve the people and
enhance creativity in education (British council, 2019).
Voluntry organisation:
This type of organisation is called as union organization which is the main functsion to
be carry the certai rtights of citizen of country. The main purpose of voluntaruy company is to
create values for the social communities as a whole and help to people for settle their life. For
example: Oxfam is volunatry sector organisation (Kozubíková, Homolka and Kristalas, 2017).
The legal structure is trustees are persoanlly liable for any such issue.
P2 Explianing size and scope of range of differentb types of organization.
There are different type and size of organisations, where the sizes are large corporations,
medium sized firm and small sized business and the types are as private and public and
voluntary sector. In private sector, companies are owned by private proprietor and in the public
sector, the organisations are owned by the government of the country. In the voluntary sector,
whereas profit or non-profit firms who are focusing on maximisation of the social welfare as a
whole. In the private sector, the company is Lidl and there are British Council and Oxfam in the
public and voluntary sectors respectively. The organisational size, scope and structure will be
evaluated further.
 Lidl
Lidl is a famous discounted super market chain, based on Germany and it has more than
10000 stores across the Europe for delivering high quality products and efficient services to the
customers. It mainly developed supply chain through discounted super market chains for
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strengthening their customers where more than 315000 employees are serving the consumers in
the market efficiently (Lidl, 2019a).
The scope of the business is such as, Maximising the organisational profitability and sales volume in near future through
enhancing the operational activities Creating values for all the stakeholders Strengthening the global supply chain Successful global expansion of the business
 Public sector company: British Council
British council is the British organisation, specialising on international culture and educational
opportunities. The organisation works for 100 countries and it aims on promoting a wider
knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language by encouraging the culture,
scientific, technological and educational co-operation. It has been founded in the year of 1934
and it serves worldwide with their best teaching professionals, effective infrastructure and
organisational structure (British council, 2019a). The size of the company is also large, and it is
efficient to serve the people who seek for personal and professional development and the future
scope are such as, Providing help to maximise personal an professionals development Increasing the numbers of students for motivating them with enhancing creativity and
innovation
 Expanding the organisations across the globe through maintaining professionalism
 Voluntary sector company: Oxfam
Oxfam is a confederation of 19 independent charitable organisations and it focuses on the
alleviation of global poverty, led by the Oxfam international. The organisation has been founded
in the year of 1942, and it is an international non-profit organisation, where the aim of the
organisation is to mitigate global poverty, disaster relief, policy research and pro-migration and
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advocacy. As per the annual report and accounts 2017/2018 Oxfam GB employed 5,274 staff
which is increase of 3.8% on the number compare to last year reports. The organisation is a large
sized firm, where it is successful to serve the people around the globed through Oxfam
international. The scope of the business is to take care of the people, who are living under the
below poverty line and help them efficiently to resolve their issues, so that their basic needs can
be managed. The vision of the organisation is to work together internationally to enable the
people to exercise their rights and manage their own lives. The mission of the organisation is to
develop the programs to address the structural causes of poverty and related justice (Oxfam,
2019).
The purposes of the company are such as, To make the business sustainable To expand their operations across the globe for social development
Through the services, the organisation is successful to take care of huge numbers of people
around the international borders, where it has the scope to eradicate the issue global poverty and
help the people to live a normal standard of living. The scope that the organisation has to include
the people, who are suffering from the issue of poverty and it further provides an opportunity to
the organisation to provide proper support and care to the people with food, shelter, health care
and water, which are basic social services that the people have right to access the services in
living in the society.
LO 2 Interrelationship of various functions with the organisational structure
P3 Explaining relationship between different organizational functions.
There is effective linkage between the organisational functions and organisational
structure where in the recent of globalisation, the multinational corporations are trying to
develop effective organisational structure according to the organisational functions through
which it is easy to run the business operational activities strategically. Lidl is a hierarchical
functional organisational structure with two main features, hierarchy and function based. The
organisation focuses on the organisational functions and according to the functions, proper
organisational structure has been developed so that the leaders and the managers can follow the
hierarchy and fulfil the objective of the organisation. Vertical hierarchy with proper authority is
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managed well in the organisation, where the company is successful with the proper
organisational structure, where there is CEO at the top of the structure. Under the CEO proper
management team is there to handle the different activities and department of the organisation.
Illustration 1: Organisational structure
On the other hand, Lidl is a large organisation, serving worldwide and in this regard,
there activities such as management of geographical areas, products and services, customers,
departments and divisions are crucial through managing the operational activities, where the
operation manager is responsible to handle the activities of transfer of raw materials, maintaining
warehouse for storing final products and distribution of the final goods and services across the
international borders as per the market demand. These are managed by the operational manager
and the employees, who are responsible to manage the organisational operations such as in store
staff, suppliers, distributors etc. In addition to these, the marketing function is another important
part of the organisation, where the marketing manager designs and develops proper tactics to
promote the brand in the market. The interrelatiosnhip between organizational fucntion for
achieving objectives are as follows:
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Interrelations between Marketing and finance: They both are the pillars of organisation
without of these functaion Lidl do not run their operation in effective manner. The markting is
completly responsible for promoting products and finance provide funds for paying its expenses.
On the other side, marketing team generate funds with marketing activity and hand over to
finance. Through both are linked with each other (.Moroni, Arruda and Araujo, 2015). So
without marketing sales, target and publicity of products of Lidl do not enahce for increasing
sales of company in effective manner.
Interrelationship between human resources and production: both are interlinked with
each other within the organization. The human resource department is responsible for hire
employees and best candidates for production team by covereing marking criteria. On the otherv
side, production department have to sets and provide information to human resource team for
proper hiring. Through taht employees are highered properly and ready to gove hard contribution
for achieving goals and objectives.
As the retail industry is competitive and it is necessary for the company to grab the
market opportunities and gain high market share as compared to other retail firms in the market,
it is the major strategy of the organisation to develop effective marketing mix strategic planning,
in order to improve brand visibility, so that they can retain the long run and trustworthy
customers for the benefits of the firm. In this regard, the marketing manager is responsible for
developing the marketing planning as well as supervise the team members to promote the brand,
there are content developer, digital content management, creative workforce and efficient
technical team who can handle the online activities and promotional activities through which it is
possible to strengthen their customers base by promoting their organisational products and
services.
The organisation tries to handle the operational activities through store expansion, so that
the brand image and product promotion can be handled well and the customers can access their
products and services, directly from the market. In this regard, the market managers and regional
vice president are responsible to operate above the functions by distributing the handling the
products and services efficiently. In addition to these, the in store management team includes the
general manager, assistant manager and co-manager so that it is possible to handle and mange
the employees at the store and provide proper training for maximising the customer service
excellence. In addition to these, the in store management includes the support manager, customer
service supervisor, as well as the finance team including cashiers, stockers ad sales associates for
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which it is possible to serve the customers in a better and efficient way. Hereby, it can be stated
that, the organisational structures linked with the functional activities of the firms and in the
recent era of globalisation, there is high competition in the market and for gaining the market
share, the companies are trying to develop the organisational structure and legal hierarchy
according to the business functions so that the mangers and the employees can follow a suitable
path to manage the functions and develop effective tactics to run the organisational activities
efficiently.
LO 3 Analysing the impacts of macro environment on business
P4 Positive and negative impact of the macro environmenty by using PESTLE model.
Through the PESTLE analysis, it is effective to analyse the macro environment and its
impacts on the business activities of Lidl. The political, economic, social as well as
technological, legal and environmental factors for the organisation Lidl will be evaluated further, Political factors:
There is highly stable political environment in the country and apart from that, the international
trade is developed efficiently where the government of the international countries are
cooperative and truing to enhance international trade. Supporting globalisation and increasing
the wage policies and practice of the government are also having positive impacts on the
organisation to secure future development with the help of the government.
Figure 4: PESTLE analysis
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(Source: Sandberg and Mena, 2015) Economic:
Considering the economic factors, there is adequate increase in the National Income and Gross
domestic products and international trade which contributes in country’s economic development.
In this regard, the employment is also increasing across the globe, where the industrialisation
and globalisation provide a scope to the firms in the recent years to increase the productive
activities successfully. Hereby, the economic stability and growth are effective or the
organisation Lidl to invest more in the organisation and expand their brand across the globe;
hereby the economic growth has positive impacts on Lidl. Social:
In the recent era of globalisation, social development is a contributing factor in the
organisational context. The literacy rate and educational activities in the society s increasing at a
rapid rate and it further helps to ensure social development. It is effective for the organisation to
improve their activities in the society and retain more customers successfully (Leeand Ha-
Brookshire, 2017). Apart from that, the preference of healthy lifestyle and diversity in culture
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further provides a scope to the business Lidl to conduct their operations successfully. The
cultural diversity can be managed well, where the urban immigration is effective to improve
employment in the society and ensure social development. Hereby, social development has
positive impacts on the organisation Lidl to run their business activities strategically in the
market (Thompson and McLarney, 2017). Technological:
Technology is playing an important role in the era of technological advancement and
globalisation, where the organisations are beneficial to invest ion technological enhancement in
order to improve the creativity and innovation in the business. Big data analysis, cloud
computing as well as e-commerce growth has positive impacts on the firm where Lidl is efficient
to manage the customers worldwide and retain them for long run and it has positive impacts on
the business activities of Lidl in doing their operations internationally. Legal:
There are various legal compliances in doing business internationally, the major changes are
such as strict employment laws after such urban immigration, protection laws, the inclusion of
tariff and quota system on the international trade, as well as environmental friendly laws and
legislations which have negative impacts on the business, as it deteriorate the first pace of
business (Sandbergand Mena, 2015). Legal compliances are strict and it further has negative
impacts, where Lidl face difficulties in international trade due to tariff and quota system as well
as copyright and intellectual property rights. On the other hand, intellectual property rights and
customer protection law are effective to run the business ethically and strengthen their
customer’s base. Environmental:
The environmental activities such as tax norms, regulations for food safety and social
development and regulations of employment play in both negative and positive way. These are
positive for Lidl to run their business in an ethical manner, but apart from that, it raises
complications in doing the business internationally as the employments laws and the
international trade laws differs in each of the international borders. On the other hand, the
activities of reducing greenhouse gas emission by raising the use of electric cars, using
renewable resources are effective and this has positive impacts on the operational activities of
Lidl to secure future sustainable development (Hammad, 2015).
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LO 4 Determining the internal strengths and weaknesses of the business
P5 Conducting internal analysis of company by using SWOT analysis.
For analysing the internal and external analysis of Lidl company here is uses SWOT
analysis for company. In that two aspects of SWOT analysis are Strength and weaknesses are
consider as a the internal aspects and another two like opportunity and threats are external
factors. Through the SWOT analysis, it is possible to analyse the internal strength and weakness
as well as identify the future market opportunities and threats for the firm.
Table 1: SWOT analysis
Strengths Weaknesses
Loyal customer base
Great pricing policy
Good locations
Efficient employees
Revenue generation
Financial stability
Cost leadership strategy
large inventories
Stopped buying in America
Unfair labour laws
Lack of product selection facility for the
customers
Opportunities Threats
Expansion across the globe
Improving local communities involvement
Social media marketing
High demand for fashionable products
Enhancing creativity and innovation
Promoting green world
Promotion trade fair and labour laws
e-commerce business expansion
Current economic fluctuations
Tariff laws
Employees unions
High competition
Costly operations for retailer
(Source: Created by Author)
 Strengths:
Lidl has customer base, where the company is efficient to serve better products to satisfy them.
Moreover, strong employee base and the product differentiation help the bran to sustain in the
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business and fulfil the choice and preferences of the customers as a whole. Additionally, Lidl
tries to enhance their performance by strengthening their supply chain and in this regard
financial stability and the organisational asset are other strengths of the company, where Lidl
tries to establish the brand strategically in the market (Lidl, 2019b). The macro economic factors
are related to the strengths and weaknesses of the company, where the company tries to utilise
the political stability in the UK, strong customer base and social group, social media marketing
and economic growth as well as environmental sustainability and technological advancement
which contribute positively in doing the operational activities of Lidl.
 Weaknesses:
The major weaknesses of the firm are such as large inventories, stopped buying in America,
unfair labour laws and lack of size selection facility for the customers which deteriorate the
smooth pace of operations across the globe. The labour laws become more complicated and it is
difficult for the organisation to manage the employees across the globe, where there are more
than 2.2 million people working for the organisation.
 Opportunities:
There are major opportunities forth company Lidl which provides a scope to the business to
explore new opportunities and expand their business internationally. The global expansion is one
of the great opportunities, which provide a scope to explore new market for expansion. In
addition to this, the technological advancement and enhancing creativity and innovation in retail
industry are also providing opportunities to the company to run their business internationally by
developing effective strategic planning to serve the customers in a better way. Moreover, social
media marketing and promotional tools are effective where the brand has the opportunity to
utilise the social platform for successful promotion of the organisational products and services.
Additionally, the e-commerce industry is growing rapidly and it is further beneficial for the
company to utilise the e-commerce platform and retail the long run and trustworthy customers
through online activities. This is also beneficial for Lidl to secure future sustainable
development. Apart from that, the restructured employment laws and fair trade activities are also
effective for the organisation to run their operational activities effectively across the globe. The
organisational also has the scope to retain the customers who love fashionable outfits and
creative products. the changing preference of the customers towards innovative products is the
opportunity for Lidl to enhance their creativity to retain and attract the audiences in the market.
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 Threats:
The major threats for the firms are such as high competition in the global retail industry,
presence of substitute products and services in the market, and costly operational activities,
which deteriorate the chances of gaining competitive advantage in the global retail market. Apart
from that, complicated tariff and quota and employments rules and legislations have been
increasing at a rapid rate which hampers the smooth operational activities in the market.
P6 strength and weakness are linked with macro environment.
The strength and weakness of Lidl company are linked with macro environment are
exploer here in proper manner. The compamy have loyal customers base which is help to
increase profit margin of company in effective manner beacuse company is use better
technological advantage at market place. This strength loyal customer base are linked with
technological factors of macro environment in effective manner. Political stability enhace the
productivity and performance of company in effective manner, it allow them to wok with earliar
structire without making any changes (Newman, Schwarz and Ahlstrom, 2017). With the help of
skilled and talented staff firm will perform better when any chances occurs related to
technological advantage. By using ths digital technology organization gain hire opportunity for
generate awareness of their products at global level.
On the other side, weakness of Lidl is unfair labour law which is directly linked with
legal factor of macro environment. In the legal aspects various rules and regulations are come
and affect to business. Like the employee wanted to do work from home in any emergency in
that case company need to allow them as per labour law. As per that both weakness and legal
factors of macro environment are interre linked with each other.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that, the scope and size as well as organisational functions and
structure are effective to be analysed to understand the tactics of the firm to perform better in the
market. Lidl follows the hierarchical organisational structure according to their functions which
provides a scope to the organisation to run their operational activities efficiently and grab the
market opportunities. The PESTLE and SWOT analysis in this study is effective to analyse the
macro and micro environment and its impacts on the business of Lidl, where it focuses on
creating values for all the stakeholders, mainly for the customers by providing quality products
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at effective price through technological development, enhancing creativity and innovation,
environmental sustainability and utilising own strengths and opportunities of market expansion
across the international borders.
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